EU Council agrees to facilitate Kaliningrad-Poland border crossing.

BRUSSELS, October 28 (Itar-Tass) -- The justice and home ministers of
the Council of the European Union gave a green light to a potential
visa-free travel of residents of Russia's Kaliningrad enclave to Poland.
"Ministers adopted a general approach on a proposal to amend the EU
rules on local border traffic which aims at facilitating border crossing
from Kaliningrad region," the Council's press service said on Thursday
adding the decision "will allow the start of contacts with the European
parliament."
Poland initiated the move which will definitely improve relations with
Russia and may also compensate for the outflow of specialists to EU
countries and fill in labor shortages in Polish agriculture sector. For
Russia the visa-free travel will give an additional economic development
impulse to its Baltic enclave. Russia also believes Kaliningrad may become
a test ground for future visa-free travel to the European Union.
Russia's Kaliningrad is sandwiched between EU members Poland and
Lithuania and has close to a million residents with 40 percent living in
the capital city.
Under current EU regulations, only residents living within 30
kilometers - and in exceptional cases 50 kilometers - from an EU border
may travel to the neighboring state with just a passport. But Poland
believes because of the small size of the region many Kaliningrad
residents will be unfairly banned free travel to the neighboring country
and urged the EU to amend its regulations to cover the whole enclave.
"The proposed amendments aim at facilitating border crossings in the
Kaliningrad area through the inclusion of the Kaliningrad area and
specified and limited Polish administrative districts in the eligible
border area," the EU Council said.
But it stressed the proposed amendment for the Kaliningrad region
"does not constitute a precedent for any other region." It means there is
no talk about visa-free travel to Lithuania.
The EU fears an increased number of illegal immigrants and growing
trafficking, but Poland believes possible violations can be prevented by a
strict and detailed procedure for crossing the border between Poland and
EU by Kaliningrad residents.
"The Council took note of the declaration of Poland outlining the
measures Poland is taking to provide for a high level of security and
transparency," the statement said.